I have been wanting to have the kids' pictures taken for a while now (It's so frustrating trying to do it myself), so when my sister and I took the kids to get pictures with Santa, we took them to Kiddie Kandids as well. Kaden wasn't cooperating the best and kept his bottom lip tucked in, but what can you do? I think they turned out cute anyway.


Cousin Jaxon, Kairi, and Kaden

We went to Jared's parents on Christmas Eve for dinner and each kid was given a pair of pajamas. The cousins always look so cute with their matching pjs. I took a picture of Kairi and Dominic, they are 5 weeks apart. Kaden didn't want to sit still to have his pic taken with Dawson.

We opened presents Christmas morning, Kairi was having so much fun playing with all the new things, even the paper and boxes. Kaden loved unwrapping everything, he unwrapped all of Jared's gifts too.

Kaden got a ton of cars, which I was planning to save half for next year too, but oh well.

Both kids got cute hats from the grandparents, too bad Kaden wont wear hats right now. Here's Kairi with her kitty hat my mom made.

After opening gifts we got ready and headed down to my parents' house. We watched some Christmas shows and Kaden was having fun getting licked by the dog. Kairi was feeling a little shy and started crying when my dad tried to make her laugh. Im sure she'll grow out of the stranger anxiety stage soon.

We had dinner and then headed home. I love spending time with family so it was nice that most everyone was able to be there. It was a great Christmas, and having kids made it all the better.

We went to the mall yesterday to see Santa Claus and get pictures taken. We had to wait in line for a while and Kairi fell asleep, I had to wake her up to sit on Santa's lap so she wasn't happy. Kaden was hungry and wanted to run around until he noticed Santa was giving out candy, then he was exited to see him. This is Kairi's first Christmas and Kaden's third. I think he's still too young to really get into the whole Santa Claus thing, but at least this year I know he will be excited when he gets to open his presents. I think i'll be nice and let him stay up later tonight so he can watch the Muppet Christmas Carol with us, and maybe we'll get to sleep in.

I finished another page a little while ago, this one has a tree with Autumn leaves attached with velcro. You take all the leaves off and put them into the drawstring bag. I havn't worked on any pages since this one, i've taken on a couple other projects i want to get done first. So once those are done i'll work on more pages. My next one will have roads for Kaden's matchbox cars to drive on.

Kaden loves going for rides in the wagon when we go to get the mail, even with the weather being so cold he still wanted me to take him for a ride. So I got a big blanket and bundled them up in their coats and took them around the block a couple of times. You can't tell by their faces in the pictures but they both really enjoyed it.

Kaden and I went out to rake the leaves while Kairi was napping. There are usually a lot of leaves since both of our neighbors don't rake so the wind just blows them where they collect in our yard and I get stuck cleaning up after 3 trees. One more reason I want to get a fence. Kaden had a lot of fun jumping in and running through the pile, so that made me feel a little better about having to rake them up.

This year we celebrated Thanksgiving at home. We usually have Thanksgiving with Jared's family, but all of us had been sick with the flu earlier in the week and didn't want to risk passing it on to anyone else. So I figured I'd just have a little fun and attempt cooking my first turkey. I bought the smallest one I could find and cooked it in a small roaster oven. And despite following all instructions and tips that I could find it still turned out over cooked. I blame the roaster oven. Better over cooked than under cooked though, right? It was still good food, not bad for my first try. Maybe I should buy more whole chickens and practice with those in case we get sick again next year.

Maceys had these track sets that come with a set of customizable track, 2 cars that drive by themselves and a few other things.  Each box is only $12 so I ended up getting quite a few of them so I can make a bigger track.  This started out as one of Kadens Christmas presents but I got too anxious to play with it so I opened it and me and Morgan put together a huge track that went everywhere.

It was better than previous trips in some ways and worse in others. I got no sleep the night before the flight since I stayed up to see the midnight showing of New Moon with Jared's mom and sisters (This happened last year also when Twilight came out, I dont know why they time my trips like this). I don't think I actually fell asleep till 3:30 or 4, then kept waking up and had to get up at 5:30. So, very tired.

When I went to wake up Kaden I was overwhelmed with the horrible smell I know to be throwup. He had it all over himself, his blanket, bed, and even the floor. So I just ended up giving him a quick bath out of the bathrom sink and got him dressed and we left, I didn't have time to clean it up. I wanted to bring his blanket to keep him calm and relaxed on the plane, but being covered in throwup I just couldn't, so we brought his teddy instead.

When we got to the airport I tried feeding him breakfast, but he wouldn't eat anything I offered so he just had some milk. When we got on the plane he was very good and just sat in his seat and looked out the window, then the last 30 min of the flight he got restless and wanted to run around and was fussing from being hungry but wouldn't eat any snacks I brought, and he started coughing a lot and then threw up on his seat. I wasn't sure what to do so I just cleaned it up with some napkins I had. Then he layed down with his head on my lap and was good the rest of the time.

When we got to Shriners they checked eveyone at the door to make sure they were feeling ok, I told them about Kaden's throwing up this morning and on the plane so they took him to a separate room and checked him, which he seemed fine, no fever. But they said we would have to be placed in a separate room just in case. I guess that was a good thing though, they seemed to just rush our appointment so we didn't have to wait around. I wanted to get some food for Kaden from the cafeteria but they closed it down. So I just got him some fruit from the vending machines and he ate that.

The appointment just went along as usual, his dr said we still need to keep working on his scar to get it smoothed out. I asked her how long we have to do that before they consider a touch up surgery, She said if it doesn't smooth out by the time he goes to kindergarten then they will do another surgery. So I guess we will keep working on it and hopefully it will go down by then. And she wants us to come back in another 6 months. . . y a y. As much as I enjoy traveling, this is getting a bit old. it's not being fun anymore.

We were back at the airport before our actual appt was scheduled so we now had a lot of time to waist. Kaden wanted to run around the whole time so we mostly just walked and we got some food at Panda Express. I wanted to get him a toy or book for the plane ride, but everything I looked at was soo overpriced. There was a cute matchbox type school bus Kaden wanted but it was $8. Sheesh. Then about 45 min before our flight we sat down to eat a snack and Kaden threw up again all over his shirt. So I took him to the bathroom and cleaned him up and stuck his shirt in a ziplock bag I had and he just wore his sweater. He didn't want to run around anymore after that.

Then on the plane he just sat and looked around again, he must have been tired, he hadn't napped all day. He layed his head on my lap and I turned on my DS and let him push buttons on a game, then he just gradually stopped and fell asleep. It was cute. So in a way it was better since he was so good on the plane and he hardly fussed, but it was worse from all his throwing up. My lesson learned from this trip - bring an extra set of clothes and more ziplock bags and napkins just in case.

I saw some pictures online of homemade quiet books and that really made me want to start one of my own for Kaden and Kairi. I've seen some really simple ones that you can buy, but they weren't that cute. So I've started gathering supplies and ideas for the pages I want to put together, I'll be making one for Kaden with more boy themed pages and one for Kairi with girl themed pages.

It would have been nice to them done for our trip to portland tomorrow, but I did finish two pages, which will hopefully keep Kaden somewhat entertained on the plane. This one has barn animal finger puppets. Made mostly from felt and scraps of fabric and some ribbon. The tractor is cut out from some patterned flannel and then ironed on with Heat n Bond.

The second one I did has a car and a truck with 3 sets of wheels you can button on each. So you can switch them out and the third set of wheels can be stored in the bed of the truck.

This has been so fun to put together, Im hoping to have Kaden's done by Christmas.

I thought this was a cute way to customize buttons for crafting. I got this kit at Joann's and just used some scraps of fabric. These ones are 3/4 inch, they come in a bigger size too.

I used the lid from a baby food jar as a template to cut my cirlce of fabric.

I then covered the top of the button and stuck it in the white plastic piece and trimed off some of the extra fabic so there wasn't too much.

Then place the bottom of the button on top and  push down with the blue plastic piece and it's done.

So simple and so cute, Im using it for the center of this crocheted flower I made and you can use it for scrapbooking or make a hair clip with it, I love it.

Ok, not really, but she's getting close. She started scooting or "army crawling" on Friday. She is constantly getting frustrated over toys that are too far out of reach (which has frustrated me as well) and I guess she's just had enough, I witnessed her first little "scoot" and it was amazing (as it always is when your little one starts learning to do something new). She hasn't mastered her new skill yet, but it doesn't look like it will take her very long, she is doing it a lot - but only for short distances.  And Kaden is feeling much better now that his infection is going away. Things are going back to normal. yay.

Also, our fish are gone. I didn't think it was fair to them to keep them living in the conditions they were, plus i was running out of food. So that's all Im saying. The tank is in storage for now, and if we ever feel like keeping up with fish responsibilites again we can just set it all up. But I don't know how soon that will be, I think i'll just enjoy caring for one animal for a while.

Kaden didn't get his first ear infection till he was 1. Which is really good considering children born with clefts are more prone to get them. It's proving to be true recently. He has had two almost back to back in different ears and Kairi also has had one in the same time frame, it's been stressing me out having two very irritable children for the last month. I should say more than a month, since Kaden's infections have no symptoms until I start seeing the drainage. So when he starts being fussy I just assume he's tired or hungry or is teething. I had taken a picture of Kaden's most recent infection, but decided not to post it, it just looked too yucky to me. I really hope it's a long time before anyone gets another.

This Halloween was Kaden's first time trick-or-treating. I was only planning to take him to a few houses, but he enjoyed it so much we ended up going all around the next neighborhood. He wasn't so sure about going to other peoples' houses and knocking on their doors, but when he realized he was getting candy at each house he started getting excited. I showed him how to knock on the door and he would imitate that until the door was answered, he would even get upset if someone took too long or didn't answer.

I was worried he might get a little grabby and take as much candy as he could fit in his hand, but he just took one peice at each house, and surprisingly he knew how to pick the good stuff too, skipping over the little hard candies and taking the candybars instead. Of corse, he couldn't eat most of it anyway, and wouldn't eat it even if I offered, so he only got a few things in the end, but that doesn't matter at this age anyway, it was just fun taking him out.

It was also cute how he was scared of the jack-o-lanterns. When I brought pumpkins home a few days earlier he didn't mind them, but as soon as I started cutting it open he got scared of it. I show him the inside and he almost started crying. And when he saw them light up at night I guess that just made them even more spooky. Whenever we came to a house with jack-o-lanterns he would want me to pick him up to take him to the door.

There was one house that really scared him though. Someone who had disguised themselves as a halloween prop with a bowl of candy sitting next to them and they had a spooky jack-o-lantern over their head. So when you went to grab a peice of candy they would try grabbing your arm or jump at you. They didn't try anything on us, but Kaden could tell something wasn't right and wouldn't touch the bowl of candy so i just took a piece for him.

Kaden had a lot of fun, I can't wait till next Halloween when Kairi can be more involved.

Poor Kaden, I feel so bad for him. He fell off a bucket in our pantry and must have bumped his mouth on the edge of a shelf. I thought it was just the usual cut lip, but it was just bleeding so bad so I took a good look and realized his front teeth had gone through his bottom lip. It just kind of put me in a shock and I started feeling light-headed and panicked. But I called Kaden's doctor and spoke to a nurse and she said there wasn't much to be done. They could do stitches on the outside but the cut didn't look big enough to me to require stitches. So I just cleaned it up and Kaden is acting like it never happened.

I wanted to take Kaden trick-or-treating this year and have yet to get him a bag for his candy. So I took one of those Walmart reusable shopping bags and with some scraps of fabric I had, I created this cute skeleton trick-or-treat bag.

Someone at Jared's work brought in some mint brownies to share and Jared said they were the best he'd ever had. So he set out to find the same recipe or something similar. This is the recipe we tried, which he said was close enough, and I thought were the best I've ever tasted. We just used a store bought brownie mix, but I suppose if you know a really good recipe for brownies it would be even better.

1 9x13 pkg. Brownie mix.

Filling:
2 1/3 C powdered sugar
5 T margarine
Dash of salt
1 T light corn syrup
½ tsp mint extract
5 drops green food coloring
2 T milk

Topping:
1 C chocolate chips
6 T butter

1. Prepare brownie mix and let cool.

2. Prepare mint filling. Soften margarine. Add salt, corn syrup, and powdered sugar. Beat until smooth and fluffy. Mix in mint extract and food coloring. Add milk gradually until the consistency is a little thinner than cake frosting. Add more milk if needed.

3. Spread mint filling over brownies. Place in freezer for a short time to stiffen icing. Prepare topping by melting chocolate chips and butter. Mix. Spread over the top of the mint filling. Serve chilled to prevent chocolate and mint from melting.

My little boy is two and I think I'm a bit sad. It just doesn't feel like it has been that long and time is just flying by, and it doesn't help that he looks older than he is too. It does make me feel better however; knowing that diaper changing for him is coming closer to an end.

But anyway, we had a birthday party for him Sunday evening which turned out a lot better than I was expecting.  I picked a car theme for his party since he is just so obsessed with them. We had the kids start out making license plates out of craft foam and then a driver's license where they drew a picture of themselves and wrote their name.

Each kid then got to choose out a cardboard box car that had been spray painted and we attached the license plate to the back and then attached the wheels and lights. The kids had a lot of fun driving around their cars and going thru the streamer "car wash".

When everyone was done assembling their cars we had cake and ice cream. I made the cake into the shape of a car which was very simple and turned out great.

Kaden then opened all of his gifts, with my help. I think he got a bit overwhelmed by all the cars he received, there were just so many to play with.

He stayed up till 11 playing and then just had to sleep with all his new cars in bed with him. I guess he can never have too many cars.

This is another thing I make every fall. I have been a little dissapointed with my usual recipe, which is good, but lacks volume and structure so the cookies just turned out flat and fell apart easily. I tried out this new recipe which included a lot more flour and the addition of baking powder. The pumpkin flavor isn't at strong, but they have the consistency I've been looking for and they are delicious. So if I ever gave you my old recipe for pumpkin cookies, try this one instead, I like it better.

1 ½ cup sugar
½ cup butter
½ tsp salt
½ tsp cloves
1 egg
½ tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
2 ½ cup flour
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 pkg chocolate chips

Blend sugar and butter; add egg. Add remaining ingredients. 350 for 15-18 min.

     I have finally finished Kadens fish tank and it really turned out great, but something is causing the fish to keep dying.  All of the fish were the first to go but we mostly just used it as a holding tank for the goldfish when we use them to feed the bigger fish.  We had a crab in there that completely dissapeared and the only thing left is a frog. The fish tank was made out of an old TV that I had gutted everything from the inside then built a plexiglass tank to slide inside.  The power button for the TV is hooked up to a light inside so its like your turning on the TV and it turns on the light.  I put some whale fabric around the back and side and painted the right side blue where the light shines in so it makes everything kind of blue-ish when the light is on.

     You will see a recipe section on the menu where Allie will be posting her favorite recipes.  I am going to make it so you can view them in a printer mode with just text and print them off if you wish. When you first go to the Recipe section it will come up with a random recipe from the database and you can then choose a category or search for a recipe.  There is still some work to be done, so just be looking out for that.

    I have also completed the news archive section.  You will see a link just under the news heading that will link you to the archive page. From there, you can click on a certain month to view those entries or click on the year to see all of the posts within that year.

We are now in Autumn, my favorite season, and I always like to start it out by making a batch of these pumpkin waffles. I like to make a lot so I can freeze them and just reheat them whenever I want. I got this recipe from Teresa and I just love them.

Pumpkin Waffles

2 C flour                         1 T vanilla   
1 T cinnamon                 1 C pumpkin
½ tsp                             ½ C margarine, melted
2 T baking powder         4 egg yolks
1 T sugar                       4 egg whites, whipped stiff and saved out
½ tsp salt
1 ½ C milk

Place dry ingredients in a bowl, put wet ingredients in a separate bowl and blend. Beat egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Add wet ingredients to dry. (May need to add more milk, almost ½ a cup.) When the wet and dry are blended, fold in stiffly beaten egg whites. Put into a hot waffle iron, spread the batter around just a little so it is not so thick and cooks more evenly.

Mazda was supposed to call us in the morning to let us know if we could pick up our car. . . They never called. So I called them at 11:30 and was told the car was ready. We got the kids ready and drove to Murray once again to pick it up. Jared asked them if the issues had all been fixed and they said yes. So Jared drove it to his parents' house so he could look it over, the oil leak appears to have been fixed, but the loose bolt hadn't been touched.

So Jared called them up and they offered to fix it if we drove it back up there. Jared just yelled at them and then hung up. It's just a loose bolt so Jared's dad is going to fix it, but the whole point was that Mazda never tightened it enough the first time and was supposed to fix it after repeated visits but never did. At least the oil leak is fixed so hopefully we can sell the car before another issue pops up.

I know, this is a long one, I don't care if anyone reads it, I am mostly just venting frustration. If you ever buy a car from Mazda, you can certainly expect very poor service if you ever need to bring it in.

About a year after we bought our car we had to bring it in to the Orem Mazda for a check-engine light issue and we literaly had to go back 15 times until the problem was actually fixed. And our most recent issue I think has been the most frustrating.

We brought the car in to the Murray dealer to get a part replaced which they said wouldn't take very long, a day at the longest. So we just had them keep it there so they could get it done, they never called us with any updates so after a while I called and was told it was going to take a bit longer. After what seemed like a week, they called us and said they ended up having to do a lot more work which was all covered under warranty, but the car would be ready the next day. So the next day we drove to Murray to pick up the car, and when we got home we noticed the car was leaking huge amounts of oil. We had Jared's dad look at it to see if we could determine what was causing the leak, and they found a couple of loose bolts and a loose wire that wasn't plugged in to anything, so we knew we would have to take it back for them to fix again.

The annoying thing is that Murray is maybe an hour and a half round-trip and every time we drive there we have to have two people driving separate cars. So Jared's mom, Teresa, drove with me to drop off the car on Wednesday morning, I told them about the leak and the other issues and they said it would take a couple of hours, I told them I would be back at 5:30 to pick it up. Teresa then drove me home and the day went by, Jared had to get off work early so we could make it to the dealer by 5:30.

We get to the dealer and I go to the service desk and ask for our car, "Oh didn't you get my message? We couldn't see an oil leak so we put some dye in the oil and wanted to let it sit over-night." Apparently they had called Jared WHILE WE WERE DRIVING TO MURRAY, to say they wanted to keep it over-night, When they had the car all day for a job that was only supposed to take a couple of hours and they wait to call us while we are on our way to pick up the car.

I didn't want our trip to be a waist of time and money so I asked if we could just take our car and take it to the Orem Mazda since it was closer. They said that would be fine so we took our car and went home. Jared looked at the car when we got home and found that the only thing they did was plug in the loose wire. THEY HAD THE CAR ALL DAY! 

Sooo, Teresa drove with me the next morning to the Orem Mazda. I told them the issues and went home. A while after we were home Teresa called saying Murray Mazda had called her about some things and was trying to contact Jared. Jared called them back and was told that Orem Mazda was doing everything wrong and they needed his permission for them to drive the car to the Murray Mazda for repair. What...a...joke. Jared didn't trust them with the car, so Teresa was kind enough to drive me back to Orem to pick up the car and Jared was then going to meet me on the freeway so we could both go to Murray to drop it off.

When I picked up the car in Orem they at least acknowledged the car WAS leaking huge amounts of oil and thought they found the problem but said they would have to take out the whole engine to fix it, which Murray said was wrong. So we took it back to Murray.

Then around 4 the same day, since I hadn't gotten any update, I called them to see how things were going, they said they were doing a dye test right then and would call me back in a few min. 30 min later and no call, I called back again, they said they think they fixed it but would like to keep it over night to make sure. I said fine, and then he kept mentioning that this is why they wanted to keep it over-night in the first place and made it seem like it was my fault that all this time had been waisted. I can't believe these guys, anyway, after dropping off the car to Murray again, waisting lots of gas and Jared taking off many hours of work, we are now waiting to hear back from them and hoping that our car is finally fixed. And once we get it back we are putting it up for sale. Not because of the issues with the car itself, but because I don't want to take anymore crap from Mazda. I'm am so sick of it and will never buy another Mazda again.

I went to a yard sale today and am very happy with my find. I rarely go to yard sales, but it seems whenever I do I always come across something good, today it was this Little Tikes Family Kitchen with accessories. It only cost me $15 and is in great condition. I think Kairi will love it. :)

We bought a nice TV from my sister and her boyfriend but couldn't decide where to put it, in the end we chose to replace the playroom TV with this new one. Jared bought a mount for the wall and built a big shelf where everything else could sit. We didn't want any wires hanging down where the kids could get hurt or pull on them so Jared also installed an outlet and network plug near the ceiling. It turned out to be more work than expected though, the wall had a lot of insullation and we couldn't run the wires through it, so we ended up cutting out a long strip of drywall on the other side of the wall (We didn't want to ruin the paint in the playroom of corse) and ran the wires that way. Jared was very quick to repair everything and I love the changes.

I knew Kairi was tired but she wouldn't go to sleep when I put her in crib, she just wanted to play, so I let her play in the jumper for a bit while I took care of Kaden. I could hear her jumping and playing and she wasn't fussing, then it just got quiet. I went to check on her and she had fallen asleep, she lifted her head a little when I took a picture, but she was fast asleep, the sandman finally won her over. The same thing happened when Jared was watching her one evening, she was playing on her tummy and the next thing she is asleep.What a cutie.

Our front walkway was very uneven and Kaden was constantly tripping so we had it replaced. Our brother-in-law Jed did all the work and did a very nice job. We thought it would be cute to have the kids' hand prints in the concrete. Kairi was pretty easy to do, I was worried it wouldn't turn out very well since it's not very easy to keep her hand in a flat position for very long, but she did great. Kaden didn't like the idea of getting concrete on his hands so he put up a fight, but it turned out good too. After doing their hands and writing their name we thought we might as well do their footprints too.

I was out of the room for a few minutes and while I was gone, Kaden got in the pantry and took out a package of cookies and decided to help himself. What was so funny is that he just took at least one bite out of each cookie and then left them on a table. Good thing there were only 6 cookies left in the package.

We went to the cabin for the Labor Day weekend. Aside from the car breaking down on the way, it was a pretty nice break.

This weekend we finally got around to painting the living room, if you remember it used to be a near white color and I've always wanted to paint it - give it more personality. I am very happy with the way things turned out. The majority of the living room and the hallway is Walnut Wash and the accent wall and stairway are Duberry Red. I was afraid the red would be too much, but I really like it. The flash makes the paint look a little brighter than it really is, so you'll have to stop by and see it to get a better look.  And on another note - Kairi is getting her first tooth!

A month or so ago we bought a couple of Oscars for our tank. We didn't know anything about the fish and soon found out that they eat pretty much anything that fits in their mouth. So we occasionally buy goldfish for them to eat and watch them try to eat 6-7 at a time. It's pretty entertaining. We bought some goldfish last night and Kaden loved to help feed them to the Oscars. He would pick one up and it would wiggle in his hand and he would laugh and get so excited to drop another in the tank.

Kaden was bugging me for a snack but I had to go to the bathroom - so what could I do? I went into the bathroom and left him outside the door crying, after a min or two I heard him leave and it got quiet. I just assumed he went to go play with cars like usual, but I come out a few min later and what I saw in the kitchen made me laugh so hard. He had climbed on top of something tall enough for him to reach a bag of chips on our pantry shelf, and then spilled half the bag trying to open it and once he did he just sat himself in Kairi's chair and started chowing down.

We sat Kaden and Kairi next to each other on our bed to whatch a show with us. They looked so cute together, Kaden doesn't mind being so close to her, he usually loves it, but he doesn't like to share his blanket.

Kairi had her first dip in the pool. She was a little unsure about it and started crying when Kaden made a big splash and it got on her face, so it wasn't a very long swim.

We gave Kairi her first taste of rice cereal this weekend. She didn't eat much the first time, just a few spoonfuls so she could try it. She wasn't sure what to do when the spoon was in her mouth so she just kinda tried to suck on it, which was cute. She's had it three times now and really seems to like it. In a few weeks I think i'll try giving her some sweet potatoes.

I had these wooden blocks sitting around forever so I thought it would be cute to decorate them for Kairi's room. It was really easy and pretty fast to put together.

I just sanded them a little to smooth the edges and then measured and drilled holes where I wanted the ribbon to go.

I then painted the edges white.

I picked out some scrapbook paper and cut and glued it to the front with some spray adhesive and then sanded the edges of the paper.

I cut out some letters for her name with some white cardstock and glued them on the paper.

I picked out some ribbon to hang them with and voila!

I have just finished up the comments for the news posts so they work.  If you would like to leave a comment on one of the news posts, just click the comment link at the bottom of the post and a popup should appear that will allow you to type in your name and write in what you would like to say.  Due to spam, we will have to approve the comment before it will show up on the site.

I am also thinking of adding an option where you can receive an update by email or text when a news post has been added so you can check in and stay up to date.  I am not sure when this will happen but if people would like me to do it, then I will try and get it done sooner.  It is about 3 A.M. so its about time for me to get some sleep.

We were invited to stay at the cabin for the weekend, which; for the most part, was pretty relaxing. Kaden was excited to be with his cousins, he just wanted to play with them all the time, he is such an active boy. Poor Kairi was sick the whole trip and I didn't think to pack a humidifier or nasal aspirator so she was so stuffed up and there wasn't anything I could do. Thankfully Teresa went to the store for some things and picked up a nasal aspirator for me, so that helped a little. We woke up the first morning there and saw a moose laying in the trees. We went to the Oakley Rodeo that evening, Jared and I didn't really get see much of it though. It just ended up being really stressful, Kaden didn't want to sit still and just cried the whole time. And Kairi was miserable and just wanted to sleep but it was too loud for her so she cried most of the time as well. I don't think we'll do that again until the kids are a bit older. We came home on Sunday and decided to buy some fireworks to light. Kaden enjoyed looking at the first few, but then just lost interest and wanted to do other things.

We went to Lagoon on Saturday with Jared's family. We decided not to bring Kairi and I'm glad because it just rained the whole day. Kaden went on a few rides: Odysea, a car ride, and the merry-go-round. He seemed a bit too small to go on anything else. If we go next year we'll take him on a lot more and maybe Kairi could go on some too.

I bought Kaden this pool a while ago and never felt like it was warm enough for him to use. I've been sad because the weather has been so rainy lately and I wanted to let him swim. Jared thought Friday was warm enough so he used a couple of 5 gallon jugs to fill it with warm water from inside. Kaden loved playing and was sad when he had to get out. I can't wait to let him play in it again.

We decided to get a couple new fish and do a complete makeover on the fish tank.  I had Rich and Morgan help out to drain and clean out the tank and then we filled it back up with all new rocks, a volcano and dragon. The volcano lights up and the top part changes colors as bubbles come out of the top.  We had all the fish in some buckets sitting on the counter and one of our biggest ones that we got from Jamie jumped out of the bucket and landed on the kitchen floor.  I was gone to the pet store when this happened but Allie said there was some blood and she figured the fish was dead.  She decided to pick it up and put it back in the pot and he seems to be doing fine now, but I picked up another of the same fish while I was at the pet store just in case.  Here are pictures of the new stuff.

I pierced Kairi's ears today. I was going to wait and make it her choice when she was older. . . but I just couldn't wait. I figured she would end up doing it anyway, so why not now. I remember growing up wishing mine were pierced, and I hated wearing the clip-ons, they hurt my ears.  She seemed to take it pretty well. Of corse I felt like a horrible mom after hearing her cry, but she stopped within a few minutes. She fell asleep on the way home and when she woke up she was happy and smiling. They look so cute on her. There are more pictures in the gallery.

I have been playing around with a photo editing program and think I'm finally getting the hang of it. I'm probably doing everything the hard way, but at least I'm getting the results I was looking for. This is the first picture I edited. I'm excited to do more.

And here's a cute one of Madrox I just did.

Kairi's Birth Story

    I knew I wanted to have another baby shortly after having Kaden. Jared and I had planned on having two and I wanted them close together. We found out early June 2008 that we were going to have another baby to look forward to. The due date was March first and I decided early on that I didn't want to find out what the gender was. Being our last, I wanted it to be a surprise. I was hoping for a girl, but would have been just as happy with another boy.

    Morning sickness came along faster than I remembered. Luckily it wasn't nearly as bad as last time and only lasted a couple of weeks. Having Kaden around made the pregnancy go by quicker. He kept my mind on other things and before I knew it I was already at 20 weeks. I decided to do the routine ultrasound just to be sure everything looked ok. I made sure to tell them I didn't want to know the gender. I also decided to just schedule another C-section. I figured I might as well since this is my last. So I set a date for Feb 25th.

    The second trimester flew by as fast as the first. But the third started dragging. Kaden liked being picked up a lot and it was putting a lot of stress on my back trying to take care of him. Thankfully he learned how to walk and that helped out a lot. They checked the baby's heart-rate at ever check-up, and it too was lower than usual. They wanted me to be monitored a few times, I had to explain that Kaden's was low as well and I didn't think it was anything to be concerned about.

    It was finally February. Jared and I knew for sure that we would name the baby Kairi if it was a girl, we'd had the name picked out long before we even had Kaden As for a boy, I made the decision up to Jared and he still didn't have anything picked out. I made many suggestions but nothing really stuck.

    A week and a half before my scheduled C-section Kaden came down with a cold. Which he got over pretty quickly, but I ended up catching it from him. I woke up Feb 16th feeling the worst I had in my life. I had a terrible cough and could barely get out of bed and Jared had to go into work. I knew I couldn't watch Kaden so I had Jared's mom come get him to take care of him for the day. I went back to bed but the coughing was putting a lot of stress on my stomach and I started having contractions. I decided to time them since they weren't going away. They were 10 min apart and had been going for at least 2 hours. I knew that wasn't close enough to be real labor, but decided to call Labor and Delivery anyway since the contractions were so consistent. They told me to come in to be monitored just incase. So I called Jared and told him to come home early so he could go with me.

    On the way to the hospital I told Jared he should decide on a boy name incase the baby came that day. I didn't really expect that to happen, but my C-section was scheduled in a week and he needed to pick a name anyway. He told me he liked the name Luke. It wasn't my favorite but I was ok with it. I was pretty sure we were having a girl anyway. The whole pregnancy just felt different. I had less nausea, very different cravings, and was much more emotional. I couldn't wait to find out if I was right.

    When we got to Labor and Delivery they hooked me up to a monitor for an hour. I was starting to feel a lot better by then, I was still having contractions but they were getting further apart. I was sure they would send me home after the first hour. But they didn't. I was having really bad lower back pain, they suspected a kidney infection (. . .I don't know why) so they decided to a urinalysis. Which, after another hour waiting, the results came back clean, as I knew they would. They said they were going to send me home and started getting the paperwork for me to sign. Then after another 30 min they came back in with the Doctor and said they noticed the baby's heart rate dropping every time I had a contraction (I don't know why it took them almost 3 hours to notice this). They told me they wanted to do the C-section now. I was very unprepared, but was just as excited. I was dying to meet my little one and finally know whether I was having a Kairi or a Luke. Jared called his mom and let her know, and we made sure we had someone to watch Kaden the next few days.

    They got me hooked up to an IV and everything and took me into the OR where they gave me an epidural. Things went a lot smoother than I remembered with Kaden. When they started to deliver the baby they asked if we were ready to know what it was. Of corse we were, I had been waiting about nine months to find out. When they finally said "It's a girl" Jared and I smiled to each other and I felt an overwhelming feeling of joy. I was so happy to have my little girl, I knew it the whole time, but actually hearing the words made it real. It gave me a feeling of completion, knowing I now have my perfect little boy and precious baby girl. They wrapped her up and actually let me see her for a few moments before taking her away with her dad.

    After stitching me up they took me to my room. I was expecting Jared to be there but he wasn't, after what felt like hours he finally came in and said they were doing tests on Kairi. She had fluid in her lungs but otherwise was fine. They brought her in to be with me and I couldn't wait to hold her. She was so tiny and perfect. I had them take her back to the nursery for the night and just bring her in when she needed to eat so I could get some sleep. I was still feeling very sick and had a terrible cough so I thought it was best. Halfway through the night the came in and told me they decided to put her in the NICU because of the fluid in her lungs, and they wanted to put her on antibiotics which took 48 hrs to fully administer. I got to go home the next morning, but Kairi had to stay another night to finish the antibiotics. Everything went well though and she came home the next morning a very healthy baby.

With allies last post, it got me thinking that it would be nice to have a website for each of the kids and document their lives with text and pictures in a timeline fashion.  I have created the websites for them and will work on creating the pages to put up, but until then be sure to bookmark their pages which are

Kaden
kaden.triptows.com

Kairi
kairi.triptows.com

I decided to write up a description of Kaden's birth story - how things went through pregnancy and when he was born and some of my feelings as I experienced it all. So years from now I can look back and remember what happened, as I'm sure as I get older I wont be able to recall exactly how things went. And I'm sure Kaden will be interested in knowing as well. I'll write one up for Kairi too.

Kaden's Birth Story

    Christmas 2006, Jared and I decided we finally wanted to start a family. We found out early February 2007 that I was pregnant. We were very excited with this being our first. The due date was October 16th. Nine months seemed like forever to wait. The first few weeks were great but I began to get terrible morning sickness later that month which lasted up to the beginning of May.

    14 weeks into the pregnancy we decided to go to Fetal Fotos to do a gender ultrasound, and found out we were having a boy. We had been going over names for a few months but couldn't really agree on any for a boy. Hayden was on the top of my list but we were still undecided. Jamie; at the time, was thinking about naming her boy Kaden. Jared loved that name and decided if Jamie didn't go with Kaden then that would be the name for out little boy, otherwise we would go with Hayden.

    We went in for our 20 week ultrasound June 19th and found out our little Kaden was going to be born with a cleft lip. We didn't really know what to think at first, we never expected anything like this to happen, but we couldn't really be sure of anything until our follow-up ultrasound the next week. They did a 3D ultrasound and confirmed that he had a unilateral cleft lip on his left side, they couldn't tell us anything about his palate until he was born. Jared and I were very sad and I cried about it, but shortly after we both knew it wouldn't matter in the end, we would still love him just the same.

    Early September at nine months, Jared, Shawn, Tonya, and I went to a park to drive RC cars, and we were walking across wet grass when I slipped and fell on my stomach. I started having small contractions and was very scared that I may have hurt Kaden. We went to Labor and Delivery at the hospital and they monitored him for an hour. Everything turned out fine and we were very relieved.

    When I started going in for my weekly check-ups, they would tell us every visit that Kaden's heart-rate seemed a bit low. At one time they were so concerned they sent me to be monitored for an hour to make sure everything was ok. They decided Kaden just naturally had a low heart-rate.

    October finally came and I was very anxious to meet Kaden. Sleeping and walking was very uncomfortable and I was hoping everyday that he would just come. My doctor told me if he didn't come by the 23rd then I could be induced. Kaden's due date came and went and I was getting very impatient.

    On the morning of the 18th I started feeling contractions stronger than I had before and didn't think much of it at first. But I started having them more often as the day went by and I knew the time was coming. It wasn't until 11PM that night that I decided we needed to pack up our things and go to the hospital. I was put on a monitor for an hour when we got there, but I wasn't making any progress and they decided to send me home with some pain medication.

    I was very tired and decided to try sleeping, hoping the medication would help with the pain. It did nothing. I got maybe an hour sleep total and at 4AM decided we needed to go back. I was put on the monitor again for another hour and was dilated to a 1. They decided to keep me and walked me to a delivery room.

    The contractions were terrible and I wanted my epidural. They hooked me up to another monitor and an IV and I had to wait an hour for the IV to drain before I could get the epidural. It was around 7AM when I finally got it and I was happy, but I started getting uncontrollable shakes, a side effect from the epidural. They continued monitoring me and waited for me to further progress, I was dilated up to a 7 and a half and they told me Kaden's heart-rate was gradually going down. They put me on oxygen and did what they could to get it to go back up but it didn't seem to help and decided it was best to do a C-section before anything got worse.

    So they increased my epidural until I was close to blacking out and rushed me to the operating room. Jared was there with me a minute later. I could barely keep my eyes open and felt a lot of pressure on my stomach. At 9:13AM October 19th my little Kaden was lifted into the world. I couldn't see him but was told he had a full head of hair. I heard his cries as they handed him to his dad and I started to cry too. Kaden's first cries were the most wonderful sound I'd ever heard as the realization came to me. . . I was a mommy.

    I didn't get a chance to see him until the next day when I could get up and walk around. He had been taken to the NICU for having fluid in his lungs and he was not eating very well. He was given antibiotics and put on oxygen for a few days. His eating was not improving and they decided to put in a feeding tube. Kaden was in the NICU for a week and a half and I visited him twice a day when I couldn't stay at the hospital any longer. They decided to send him home on Halloween. He still had the tube, but once being home his eating greatly improved and it was removed a week later. I don't think it was really necessary to keep him in the NICU for so long. He just needed his mommy's love and attention.

I am working on allowing for comments on the news posts so everyone can easily post comments about what we post here.  I will also be making a news archive system but that wont be done for a while, ive been SOO busy lately and have not had much time for anything.  I have thought about adding a forum on here, but only if people will want to use it. Go to the contact us page and let me or allie know if you would post on the forum.

I LOVE YOU ALLIE!!!

Today is mine and Jared's 5 year wedding Anniversary. Five years already? I guess when I really think about it, five years does feel about right, it's just gone by so fast. Jared is deffinately the love of my life, aside from the two beautiful children we have together, and I'm very proud to be his wife.

On another note, I'm done with the playroom. I just got sick of painting so I decided it's done. I finished up around the jeep and did some touch-ups around the trim. So here's the finished project. There are more images from further back in the gallery.

This is what I finished up this week. Sorry for painting over your hard work on the Jeep Myndi, I just figured we'd never get the colors you mixed to match again since they dried, and I just decided to go with something simpler so I could get the room finished up. I think now all i want to do is finish up on the plants and the room will be done.

Kaden did this a while ago, but I wanted to take pictures before I attempted to wash it off. If you know a good way to do this without taking off the paint, I'd be glad to know. He drew on the wall the first time over the Jeep and the Zebra, then he did it again a week later in about the same spot. Im sure he thinks it's ok to do this since he sees Myndi and I painting on the walls. I need to keep all pens and pencils out of his reach from now on.

I saw this slide while at the store and just had to get it. Kaden loves going down slides, so I thought I might as well get one for home. It's just his size so he can climb up himself and I'm sure Kairi will like it too once she's old enough.

Here's some other pictures I took this weekend. Kaden wanting to drive the car and Kairi just being adorable. There are more pictures in the gallery as well.

Just some more pictures of the progress done in the playroom.

I wanted to put Kairi in a crib so I just decided it was time to switch Kaden to a regular bed. I'm confident he'll be ok with it as long as it has the safety rail up. He can climb onto it ok too. He is napping in it right now, so we will see how he does. . . so far so good. 

And Kairi now has a crib to sleep in, I just need to get some new crib sheets for her.

We've been getting some extra money since Jared got me my new "job". So we decided to get this new TV for our game room. I'm not sure of the details, but the picture is so clear and bright. We joked about getting another one just for our bedroom if we could get enough money.

Kaden had another checkup in Oregon on Friday. We woke up at 5:30 to make sure we had enough time to catch our flight. Kaden was tired didn't want to eat much so he was a bit grumpy the whole time. He was really interested in all of the planes. We had a seat next to a window on the ride to Oregon so he just loved looking out of the window as the plane took off. 6 months ago he didn't care at all for planes and he had no idea what was going on, so it was nice to see him so aware of them this time. The plane ride was a little over an hour, and trying to keep him still on my lap for so long was no easy task. I definitely need to find our portable DVD player for next time. Once we landed we met our ride to the hospital. It's so nice not having to get a rental car or have to take a car seat. When we got to hospital Kaden ran to all of the toys they had and started pushing around the cars.

Our appointment wasn't until later that afternoon, but they made sure we were seen right away so we didnt have to wait a long time. We saw the speach therapist and his surgeon. They recommended he go to a speach therapy program in our area to see if we could get him saying more words. The surgeon looked at the hole in his uvula and said it was normal and shouldn't affect him at all. When we were finished they gave him a teddy bear with a scar just like his and said they will want to see him again in another 6 months. Hopefully by then he will start saying more words.

We went to eat at the cafeteria after his appointment, but he still didn't want to eat much so we just went to the lobby to play with more toys until out ride was ready to take us back to the airport. He liked looking out the window at the cars that went by below. He got excited and would point to each one to show me.

He fell asleep on our ride back and amazingly stayed asleep when i picked him up to move him to his stroller when we got to the airport. We had a few hours before our flight and I didn't want to wake him up to go through security so I just found a quiet spot and let him sleep.

It didn't last very long before he was up and wanting to walk around. Kaden never stops going. He wanted to go everywhere and liked to push the stroller around.

We went to a store and I bought him a book that had cars in it, I was hoping it would entertain him on the plane ride back. And it did for a little bit. He really threw a fit on the way back though, until they started serving the snacks and drinks. They were nice enough to fill his sippy cup with apple juice and then he was happy. He will be 2 the next time we fly out, so at least he will get his own seat. That will make things a lot easier.

Kaden and I were outside mowing the lawn yesterday. The house next to us, which I think may be vacant, hasn't had the lawn mowed since last August. Kaden likes to wander between yards and while I was at the far end of ours, I look around to see where kaden was but I couldn't find him. So I started looking around all worried and as I walk closer to the front of the yard I can see the top half of his body sticking out of the neighbor's grass. If he were laying down completely I woundn't have been able to see him at all. You know it's time to mow the lawn when you could potentially loose a child in it, but since no one really lives there, there isn't anyone that I can think to complain to and I have a big enough lawn to mow by myself.

I was wearing a headband this morning and it fell off. Kaden picked it up and tried to put it on his head so I helped him. He kept taking it off and putting it back on and was walking around all happy that he was wearing it.

We've made a lot of progress on our playroom, but we still have a lot to do. Myndi has done such a great job on all of the animals.

Rich invited us to go to the zoo with his family yesterday. Kaden had never been and it had been a long time since Jared and I had been, so I was excited to go. The weather was a little chilly but nice enough.

Kaden enjoyed looking at all the birds and liked the cougars and the bears. He took his first ride on the carousel. He was nervous at first and was really stiff, but by the end he was having fun and was looking around at everything going by. We went to the playground area and fed the swans and geese, and we took Kaden down a little slide a few times. He was really upset when we had to go, I cant wait to take him again when the weather is a little nicer and we can spend more time looking at the animals.

We have been working on painting the playroom and have made great progress the past few days, here are some pictures to show the work we have done. Kaden got paint on his face.  If you want to see the larger pictures of these in the gallery CLICK HERE

Kaden was excited when he woke up and found that the Easter bunny had left him a couple of hotwheels cars in his Easter basket. He demanded I open them right away, and wasted no time playing with them. 

Kairi got her own little basket with a bunny. We traveled down to my parents' house to spend the rest of the day where we played some games and dyed eggs. After we dyed the eggs Jared hid them out on the back lawn and we had kaden search for them. It was so fun watching as he found each egg and tossed it in the basket. Then he found out they could break and the broken ones were no longer good enough to be in the basket so he would toss them out.

I have finished up the website for our family and it is far from complete.  I still need to create the calendar, jukebox, guestbook and finish up the gallery page with categories. This site will change themes monthly, on certain holidays and on special occasions so keep checking back. The old triptow site is still around as backup files and will most likely not put it back up.  I figured that it wasnt getting used as much as I had hoped so if someone wants a personal site like this, then I can just create them as needed.

If there is something you would like to see on here or would like to drop by a comment, please click on the contact link and send me or Allie an email.